traffic management

This awesome new Server 2016 feature can be used to create a DNS policy which responds to a query for the IP address of a web server with a different IP address based on the source subnet of the client.

Let’s take an example; we have ADFS configured in Azure using the following settings:

There are 2 sites, London and Manchester. London has a VPN link to Azure, however Manchester has no route to Azure. Both sites are connected to each other and the Domain Controller is located in London.

This means that London users (on 192.168.10.0/24) can access ADFS, however Manchester users (on 192.168.11.0/24) cannot access ADFS using the internal IP. We need to route Manchester users to ADFS via the external ADFS IP, but how to do this when they are resolving DNS records via the same Domain Controller? Host files can do this but that is complex and doesn’t allow for mobility. Enter Traffic Management using Server 2016.

These policies are very versatile, allowing you to combine multiple parameters (using AND/OR) such as client subnet, protocol, or time of day to create complex policies which can help you direct clients to the correct location.

I’ll finish this post with a small tip; if you want to remove or get the policy, make sure you specify the zone name or a null value will be returned. For example: